Welcome to 2019, a year that I entered into by driving to the Lake District in the dark to shoot its first sunrise. The resulting image is above – though that’s far from the vision I had when I set out…

January 1st was the only day of the entire Christmas and New year break that offered the suggestion of a sunrise and I was keen to get out and do something in the great outdoors before work beckoned again. This is Blea Tarn, and in an ideal world you would be looking at the Langdale Pikes perfectly lit and reflected in the still waters. Alas, it was too choppy for that. It did teach me to look around though and seek out an alternative, the first of which happened to be a little along the shoreline and shown in the shot below that I’m still not overwhelmed by.

With imminent disappointment looming large I turned around and caught sight of the tree in the main image (top), the warm yellow fingers of 2019 feeling their way through the branches and pushing through the adjacent gate invitingly. I didn’t even know if it would make a decent shot as I wandered towards it – shooting in to the sun can be a bit hit and miss – but it soon became apparent that just a few hours in to the new year I’d already shot a contender for the 2020 calendar. The day saved, I head off content for a second breakfast in nearby Hawkshead. I’d been awake since 3am and it had been a long day already…

A few days later…

A few days later I head back to Little Langdale with my friend Lucas to check out an abandoned quarry not far from where I’d watched that sunrise, and though the light was rather flat this time it was a nice enough way to spend a good few hours. And in any case much of it is underground so the cloudy skies were less of an issue than they would have been on New Year’s Day. The nineteenth century slate workings were big business here until the post-war decline that so many traditional industries struggled with, and after winding down it eventually closed in the 1960s leaving behind a varied adventure playground for the curious and the daring.

Divers we are not, however, so our exploring of the subterranean caverns was restricted to the dry-ish ones. A combination of imagination and YouTube videos shed light on what lay under the extremely deep and dangerous waters around us, but there’s plenty to see and shoot above the water line with just a pair of wellingtons for kit once you’ve navigated the steep slopes down. Plus you can get creative with a torch, as we did here…

Some of the caves and tunnels were a little too submerged to pass even with wellingtons though and after wading along them to within an inch of getting very wet feet we were forced into a u-turn. And it looked so passable as well!

Down by the water’s edge the long abandoned workings tower above, and in the still reflections produce an image akin to a skull sideways-on, lending the otherwise silent scene a hint of menace. Soon afterwards the silence was punctuated by a volley of stones thrown from above by people that couldn’t see us by the water’s edge as they attempted to hit the water – perfectly demonstrating that irrespective of any dangers a place may hold in itself it’s often the actions of human beings that pose the greatest threat.

This was an afterthought though – my main response at the time was to shout up at the unseen people, and the rock throwing quickly stopped. I wish I could have seen their reaction to the voices coming from below…

In truth it would have been nicer to shoot Hodge Close on a sunny day when the water looks turquoise and the trees are green, but as we began the steep ascent back to the road we resolved to return in the summer. With a dinghy.

Cathedral Cavern

Not too far away was Cathedral Cavern, and I’ll include this shot here for the sake of completion as I didn’t post it back in September when we actually visited. Although easier to get to we took the hardest way in, scrambling down wet rocks and bent double through low tunnels – before realising you can walk straight out of the back of it…

This is a composite of two exposures blended to capture the full dynamic range:

All very nice for an alternative day out and I’m sure there’s plenty more of this kind of thing to see. I’ll post again later in the year when we revisit.